Shashi Tharoor, a former UN under-secretary-general and former Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs, is currently an MP for the Indian National Congress and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. He is the author of Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century.

The underlying principle of this article is economic and revenue loss. Nowhere, it mentions its effects on the health of the nation. Shashi selectively forgets that India still lives in its villages and alcoholism is a major cause for many social issues. He may refer NSSO survey. The downside of prohibition is still tolerable!

In Gujarat where there has been a prohibition for more than 50 years, the government out there has softened the ban to a great extent since it was overall affecting the reputation of the state.
Again it has not been proved that crimes increase due to liquor!!!...In several countries where liquor is banned in the name of religion but however, it is those countries which are producing the maximum of terrorists!!!!...

I completely agree with Mr. Shashi Tharoor. Liquor ban has failed everywhere in the world. India is no exception. Instead the government should create awareness amongst people and run more of deaddiction centres. These are the only methods which are time tested & successful everywhere in the world. In a democratic country, you can not force things on people. Prohibition is nothing less than forcing something on people.
It has not been proved that only liquor destroys families. In fact there are several people who do not drink liquor but yet their families get destroyed due to several other reasons other than liquor!!...Also liquor is not harmful if had in limits. Rather anything had in excess is harmful. Even sweets had in excess is harmful!!!...then why don't you ban sweets to protect health of people?????

Let us not dismiss the concerns of women, who have been major supporters of prohibition, from villagers taking direct action against sellers of alcohol packaged in plastic bags, to very large and impressive movements, such as the one IN Andhra some decades ago. When I visited a Haryana village in 1998, inwardly rejoicing at the repeal of prohibition (that allowed us to drink at home openly once again), the women were in mourning, foreseeing the return of husbands drinking up their income, and beating their wives as a bonus.

It is difficult decision due to complexity of the situation in India. There are pros & cons of prohibition. Some compromise is necessary. No need to ban on wine & beer & low alcohol drinks. Some restrictions on hard drinks are justified , (excluding for tourists ..) if there is a political will to enforce it sincerely. Otherwise it only encourages corruption, illegal trade, dangerous substitutes & loss of revenue.

Mr.Tharoor I don't agree with you on this issue you're talking about tourists and economics about prohibition but deep down inside it's the family of an liquor consuming person that suffers the most one a day to day basis In different ways viz economically,socially,health wise and all other umpteen ways the rule is a rule no matter what I don't care if the border district's of neighbouring state makes money becoz of the prohibition In my state all I want is the people of my state should not get access to liquor that's it and prohibition needs time to get results after all these decades of encouraging liquor consumption directly Or indirectly by the state and hypocritical society of ours we have to implement it strictly from now on until the next 25 years atleast the time when the new generation of our now infant children would've grown up

Learn something from U.S. history, and don't try to impose prohibition. The cure is worse than the disease. Instead of alcoholism, we got alcoholism and organized crime, both.

When I was a child, I asked my mother (who lived through it) what the difference between "wets" and "drys" was. "Wets were against prohibition, drys were in favor of it." I said, "Did that mean the wet drank and the drys didn't?" '"Oh no", said my mother. "Everybody drank."

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